Formed as a side project by members of Steel Pole Bath Tub, Milk Cult released four albums of electronic-rock-avant garde music between 1992 and 2000. Peel approached their debut album, Love God with a degree of distance regarding it as strange as anything I’ve ever heard. He felt that Tuesday was the most accessible track on the album and given that most of it seems to take place within a Formula 1 pit lane, I can see why it appealed to him.
Tuesday will give you a flavour of what to expect from the Love God album: plenty of found sound, genuine industrial noise (engines starting etc), short bursts of rock and excursions into more atmospheric soundscapes. I’m thinking in particular of the two minute ghostly piano/melodica duet which starts at 1:20 and sounds like it’s being played in an abandoned factory. It’s all a bit of a hodge-podge but it hangs together surprisingly well.
Peel gave his listeners something of a potted review of the Love God album, talking in particular about its centrepiece: There’s a 38 minute track on there which I seriously doubt anyone will ever listen to in its entirety. He was was talking about the six-track suite called Clown Party which makes up the second half of the album. I took him up on the challenge and listened to the LP yesterday. I disagree with him that Tuesday was the most accessible track on the album, I think that the title track would be worth an airing, despite its near 11 minute running time. However, Peel was spot on about Clown Party, a title which conjures disturbing images of Pennywise and friends causing havoc, but which ends up being six tracks of repetitive tedium, albeit there are several moments where it sounds like the band are about to start playing Eye of the Tiger. Overall, on Love God, there’s nothing to frighten the horses, but there isn’t much to exhilarate anyone either.
Video courtesy of Milk Cult - Topic
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